Hope of Bah as new district grows after state govt asks for detailed draft on Chambal ravine

Agra: UP government’s Board of Revenue has asked for a detailed draft of Bah from Agra district administration, in order to carve Chambal ravine area as a new district.

Located at Yamuna doab and Chambal river, nearly 100 km away from Agra district collectorate, Bah is the ancestral home of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Famous for 108 Lord Shiva temples, which attract hundreds of thousands of devotees every year, the Chambal ravine area is one of the most underdeveloped areas in the state.

Even today, on some odd days, local residents have to swim in crocodile-infested river of Chambal to visit neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, when the steamer or pontoon service is not available.

According to locals, basic amenities such as transportation, education, health and employment have taken a hit due to continuous negligence by public representatives elected from Bah.

Sources claimed, a letter from Board of Revenue was forwarded to Agra district administration on Thursday by Agra divisional commissioner office, which was further sent to SDM Bah for detailed draft regarding area, population, schools, hospitals, community health centres, total road length, bridges, employment, industry and other man-made and natural resources.

Additional district magistrate (administration), Nidhi Shrivastava said on Saturday, “A letter has been received from state government seeking detailed information of Bah, so that decision could be made to carve out

Bah as new district

.”

Rakesh Vajpayee, the nephew of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said, “Over 30% of the local population has migrated to other places for employment. There is no proper hospital or good schools. Students travel 20 to 30 km for college. The local MP has hardly paid a visit to the area, let alone spending government funds to develop it. There is an urgent need to make Bah a separate district and a new parliamentary constituency.”

At present, Bah comes under Fatehpur Sikri parliamentary constituency of Agra district.

On August 15, 2018, Har Narayan Yadav, a social worker along with 250 local residents went on cycle march up to Lucknow, to raise demand to the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath for Bah to be separated from Agra, after which revenue board of UP asked local administration to prepare a proposal for the same.

Speaking to TOI, Yadav said, “Bah is a huge area and is far away from district HQs. There are some villages which are 130 km away from Agra city. Back in 1976 when ND Tiwari was the state chief minister, the then local MLA Shambu Nath Chaturvedi requested Tiwari to make Bah a separate district after which a commission was formed to create four new districts, including Ghaziabad, Lalitpur, Bhadohi and Bah, but only three districts were carved out. Till date, Bah is lagging behind because of the negligence of the state government and public representatives who are elected from here. The government must create a new district and parliamentary constituency of Bah. It should be named Atal Nagar.”

He added, “On December 25, we are again going to hold a march to Lucknow, to expedite the process and declare Bah as new district.”

According to state election commission data, there were 3,21,295 voters in 2017 state assembly elections.

Another prominent local social worker, Ramsingh Azad, said, “Being part of Agra, we are the unfortunate ones as most of the government programmes and schemes never reach our villages. The government officials hardly show interest in the area. They feel as if they have been punished if they are posted in Bah. Bah needs to be a new Lok Sabha constituency.”

According to government sources, if Bah is carved out as a new district, it would have three tehsils: Bah, Fatehabad and Bateshwar.


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